A look inside the Minnesota Wild’s new training facility

The facility features a 4,300 sq ft weight room, a theater room, a whirlpool room...

The Minnesota Wild are following in the footsteps of fellow professional sports teams like Timberwolves and Vikings by creating a new state-of-the-art practice facility for their players.

“In 2000, we always wanted a practice rink, and it didn’t quite fit in our original expansion model. Since then, we’ve really been watching and monitoring the right solution and right here in St. Paul is great,” said Jaime Spencer, Executive VP of Business Development for the team.

By Edgar Linares

The new facility is located at 400 North Wabasha Street in downtown St. Paul. It’s the old Macy’s store that left the building vacant when it closed in 2013.

Similar to the Timberwolves and Target Center, the Wild's TRIA Rink at Treasure Island Center is steps away from their main venue, the Xcel Energy Center. Spencer believes this facility is the closest practice rink to a home rink in the entire NHL.

“When you think of the travel distance for players and the fact that some of them have kids in school, it doesn’t disrupt their life to go four blocks away from their primary home rink,” said Spencer.

By Edgar Linares

The facility features a 4,300 square foot weight room, a theater room, a whirlpool room, and a cafeteria with a fireplace that’s catered by some of Minnesota’s top chefs. One of them…Andrew Zimmern host of Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel.

“I want to salute our partners at the Wild who had the forethought and the smarts to say, ‘You know something? We need to send a message to our players that their bodies, and what they eat, and their spiritual and psychological wellbeing, when it comes to food, is valuable to us’,” said Zimmern.

By Edgar Linares

Wild General Manager Paul Fenton says when he got the initial tour of the facility, he thought about how impressive it might be to new recruits.

“It will be a great recruiting tool,” said Fenton. “Not only for the pros, but for the free agents that we’re going to entertain, whether they‘re coming from colleges or Europe when they come into this environment. I think there’s nothing like in the NHL right now.”

TRIA Rink is located on the fifth floor of the facility and seats 1,000 people. It will also host the NWHL Minnesota Whitecaps’ home games. Overall, the team expects up to 600,000 visitors a year.